About as "manga" as Thundercats.
Battle of the Planets: Manga #1
Image Comics/Top Cow (November, 2003)
WRITER: David Wohl ARTIST: Edwin David COVER COLOR: Matt Milla ART DIRECTOR: Alex Ross LETTERERS: Robin Spehar, Dennis Heisler, & Mark Roslan ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Scott Tucker MANAGING EDITOR: Renae Geerlings EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jim McLauchlin
G-Force are sent to investigate an amusement park being run by Spectra. However, Keyop gets caught up in the fun and is captured by Spectra, who are unaware of who is he and his friends are specifically but do finger them as spies. So they use a fake Keyop to lead the team into a trap.
What they got right: The further adventures of G-Force. We get to see them take some time to relax before investigating the park. The artwork is fantastic and may actually benefit from the lack of color. (The entire comic is in black & white.)
What they got wrong: Black and white artwork that gets anime character models correct do not make this a “manga” style comic. The layouts and size (I’m not going to get into flipped/unflipped because it’s produced by a Western company for a Western audience) aren’t in keeping with manga or a “manga style” comic. Also, I was real disappointed that this didn’t continue the story after the end of the maxi-series, and while I’m over that disappointment and can judge it on its own today, back then it didn’t make me happy.
Recommendation: The story is off to a good start. It’s been a while since I’ve read this mini, so we’ll see what happens by the end.
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